We all watch the news and see reports on Facebook of the latest crimes that happen in our hometowns. But it can be hard to tell at a big picture level how dangerous our town actually is.

No one wants to feel unsafe, and statistically speaking, odds are that where you live is most likely relatively safe. In order to help the good people of West Virginia — and anyone looking to move to West Virginia — know just how close they are to danger, we took data from the annual FBI report and did some serious analysis.

The data shows that these ten cities are currently the most dangerous in the Mountain State for 2019:

Charleston placed 1st in our ranking of the most dangerous cities in the Mountain State.

This city’s violence now stands a 1 in 85 chance of being the victim of a violent crime. That compares to a 1 in 13.9 chance of being the victim of property crime. That’s pretty bad for a city of about 48,788 people.

Beckley, with a population of around 16,862 has experienced decent amount of crime in recent years.

Currently, residents have a 1 in 16.8 chance of being the victim of theft or arson in 2017 and a 1 in 144 chance of being the victim of violent crime. That’s good for a 2nd overall ranking on our list of dangerous places in West Virginia.

The county seat of Mercer County, Princeton, WV doesn’t have the same prestige as its collegiate namesake.

In fact, it’s the 8th most dangerous city in the whole state, with residents facing a 1 in 228 shot of being the victim of a violent crime, and a 1 in 28.4 chance for property crime (the 8th highest on this list).

The good news is that these numbers have been falling at a decent rate, so maybe Princeton won’t be on this list (or at least near the top of it) in years to come.

Dunbar has seen a continuous drop in crime of late — just not at a quick enough rate to get it off this list.

And with residents still facing a 1 in 35.1 chance of being the victim of a property crime, there’s little cause for celebration. In fact, the latest FBI report shows that there were 35 violent crimes in a town of only 7,486 in 2017.

Locking It All Up In West Virginia

The latest FBI crime data shows that Charleston ranks as the most dangerous city in West Virginia for 2019.

We want to point out again that there’s still safes places in Charleston and that this isn’t a comment on the people that live there. So please don’t beat us up.

If you’re curious enough, here are the safest cities in West Virginia:

13 thoughts on “These Are The 10 Most Dangerous Cities In West Virginia For 2019”

I live in Parkersburg. This is interesting because the heroin is over coming our city. It’s getting worse every year. I moved here from Youngstown Ohio so I could have a family and raise them in a safer place. But this is how it all starts. It’s a sad reality but unless we take our city back it’s going to end up just like my home town. Trust me you don’t want that.

I can only conclude that these “findings” are totally either biased or statistics that are used are as totally screwed! They list Beckley as the first worst place to live in WV and it doesn’t even make the top 10 for most dangerous. Does that make sense? I also conclude that since WV has the one of- or at least the lowest crime rate in the nation (look that one up) then our danger rate is so much less than everyone else! Thank you.

I have found from other readings on this blog forum that the site dedicates itself to finding dire statistics. Not only from WV, but other States as well. I can’t imagine they are making many people happy about where they live! I am still very happy to live in Princeton, WV.

Martinsburg should have been number one, because of our heroin problem. It is so bad out interstate highway I-81 is called the heroin highway to mention we are called little Baltimore because of the drug problem. At middle schools in Martinsburg when ever South or North wins a basketball championship you can oftenly find needles, crack, and weed. At South in the 6th grade, there has been three drug busts. Also, every day, there is always a fight.

The way out of addiction, crime, and poverty is Christ. The way into poverty, crime, and addiction is a belief in money, the media, and big government.
People make their own decisions every day and the results of bad choices are all too plain to see.
Stop worshiping electronics and sleeping with your neighbor’s husband or wife as the case may be. # 1 Best thing to do is to teach your children to be obedient and Love the Lord. If not, you will pay the ultimate price. Our nation was made strong by honest hard working people, and the opposites are tearing us apart.

Well said! Be obedient and Love the Lord. We need to fight against the lawsuits that want to prevent the teaching about god in our schools and embrace the fact that some schools still include him. Without him our nation is doomed! I would love to see a chart of the crime rate since prayer in schools became illegal.